Diego Flores-Hernández ’26 will deliver the student commencement address at this year’s graduation ceremony. In an interview with The Mossy Log, Flores-Hernández reflected on a college experience where his growth was shaped by community.
For Flores-Hernández, the honor of speaking at graduation carries deep personal significance. His parents, who in the past have been unable to visit him due to visa issues, will be in attendance for the ceremony. Fores-Hernández said jokingly that he is seeking their validation, and when he knew he would be speaking, his mind went to them.
“The first thing I thought about was my parents,” he said. “I’m just happy that they are gonna be able to see me … they have done so much for me.”
Flores-Hernández said that during his time at Lewis & Clark, he has found meaning in spaces that pushed him on both an intellectual and personal level. He pointed to his participation in the Ray Warren Symposium as a formative experience early in his college career, standing out as an environment where he first found a sense of belonging.
Flores-Hernández said that seeing so many students dedicate time and care to organizing the symposium — despite already balancing busy schedules — left a lasting impression on him.
“I really admire their capacity to juggle,” Flores-Hernández said smiling.
Other experiences, such attending Meditation Club, helped him grow in more unexpected ways by pushing him out of his comfort zone.
“I’m kinda afraid of silence,” he said. “(Meditation Club) helped me get over that.”
Flores-Hernández was born in El Salvador prior to LC. He said that as an international student, his time at LC required him to build a sense of belonging from the ground up. This often meant having to navigate a culture he felt was very different from his own. In doing so, he said he came to see identity and community as something that can be actively created.
“Being here as an outsider … I had to create my own culture,” he said. “That just showed me the possibilities of how much we can tweak the world to make it everything we want.”
That sense of transformation will be central to his commencement speech. While he declined to share specifics on the speech’s content, Flores-Hernández emphasized a message of growth through uncertainty, particularly in moments that feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar.
“Fear hides possibility,” he said. “Everything we do is just making us become something else, something more, and that’s always good.”
Flores-Hernández also described this graduating class as one defined by its diversity of interests and perspectives.
“There are a lot of smaller groups you can separate people into, based on different interests. It’s a really diverse class, and I feel lucky to have interacted with a lot of those groups. People are passionate in different ways, and that’s been fun,” he said.
As he prepares to take the stage, Flores-Hernández hopes his words resonate beyond the commencement ceremony itself, offering a sense of direction and reassurance at a moment of transition in the graduates’ lives..
“Hope and empowerment, those are two things I would like them to feel,” he said in closing.
About the Author
